April Tools Video

[gfish]

I'm still working on a full April Tools write-up, but I edited all the video together last night. So if you've ever wanted to see me repeatedly tip over/sink in a very small, hastily constructed boat, today is your lucky day! (You'll just have to add the Yakety Sax soundtrack yourself.)

Comments

[rollick.livejournal.com]

Oof, I hope that water was warm, given how much time you spent in it.

[gfish.livejournal.com]

Heeheehee, no. That was an arm of the Pacific, and warm oceans are a fairy-tale myth in this part of the world. Even in August it won't get above 55.

Honestly, though, I barely noticed. :)

[ivy]

Heeheehee awesome. No keeling allowed?

[gfish.livejournal.com]

No materials for it. We were given 1 and 1/8 sheets of plywood, some 1x2s and a 2x2. Could have added a canoe keel ridge for directional stability, but the course was short and twisty enough I wouldn't have bothered even if we had had time. The hull shape was just a very poor choice, no primary stability.

[ivy]

Huh, yeah. My knee jerk answer to that is currach, but I don't know how to do that with the materials you were given.

Did you have fun?

[gfish.livejournal.com]

Most years they include a plastic sheet which can be used for a frame-and-skin style boat like a currach, but not this year. A reduced set of materials was one of the surprises.

Yeah, it was pretty awesome. Even if it didn't work very well, we made a boat in 3 hours!

[solarbird]

We were given 1 and 1/8 sheets of plywood
....oooooh, okay. That explains that. And the single 2x2 says why you didn't pontoon it properly - tho' you clearly gave it your best shot! XD

[peteralway.livejournal.com]

My inner physicist is ashamed of not being able to analyse the stability of your craft in a rational way. I'm afraid I couldn't do any better than you did. Though after the fact, I think I'd make a square tub and say to heck with streamlining.

[neuro42.livejournal.com]

the issue is roll stability. i can't do the exact math, but the general idea is to look at dVolume/dTheta; positive roll stability requires that as your roll deviates from vertical the displaced volume increases. A square cross section like we have doesn't do that (neither does a circle; various triangles and involutes and such do).